I have an idea for an espionage/thriller novel. I want to test the concept out here.

The story starts in an election year in the midst of a close, hard fought campaign. The president is a liberal who has supported Islamist forces across the Muslim world as they have overthrown secular dictatorships. He even assisted the in the overthrow of one dictatorship with military force.

He is heavily invested in his support for the overthrow of the dictatorships and wants to make sure that world sees it as a movement toward democracy and liberalization in the Islamic world.

The problem is, that a major terrorist organization is ascendant in these countries. In fact, the terrorist organization has attacked the consulate in the very country the president ordered the military to assist in the overthrow of its dictator. In addition to three others, for the first time in more than a generation, an ambassador was killed in the line of duty.

The president and his staff attempt to cover up the details of the attack by characterizing it as a simple protest that got out of hand. They blame it on a video that they say is repugnant to the administration’s values of diversity and inclusion.

Leaks, however, make it evident that it wasn’t a protest at all. It was a well planned, coordinated attack by an Islamist terror organization. The cover-up starts to unwind and the opposition party begins to demand answers.

Two of the four people killed in the attack were former military special operations operators serving in the CIA. More leaks reveal that they fought a hard battle and killed 60 attackers. They begged for assistance that was denied at the highest levels of government. They abandoned them twisting in the wind.

The head of the CIA is a former Army general who is considered to be a hero by the American people. His strategy for a surge in Iraq is widely considered to have won the war. As head of the CIA, he is in a position to know exactly what happened during the attack, to confirm that the forces at the consulate were denied assistance and explain why. The opposition party in the House of Representatives calls him to testify.

Then, suddenly and without warning, a week before he was to testify, the hero general admits to a sordid sexual affair with a married woman and he resigns in disgrace. The press, in a matter-of-fact manner, announces that he won’t testify after all and focuses instead on the sordid details of his affair. The entire investigation is put in the ditch. Strangely, the media seems disinterested in further investigation…

Nah, never mind. That is a stupid plot that is too far fetched to ever be published. Nobody would believe that shit. Sorry I wasted your time with such a harebrained plot.

I’ve got one you might be able to flesh out though. It has drug lords, guns from the US sent south to muck up support for gun control, border agents, at least 301 dead, a media machine who can’t quite drum up the interest to win a pulitzer and concerned citizens who use cyber space to try and get some answers.